Manning: social services were not to blame

The former bus driver who murdered eight-year-old Victoria Climbié has told the inquiry into the girl's death that child protection agencies could not be held responsible for her suffering.

In his pre-recorded testimony to the public inquiry this afternoon Carl Manning, 29, said he should not have put Victoria "through such pain and suffering".

Manning, along with his former girlfriend Marie Thérèse Kouao - Victoria's great aunt- subjected the eight-year-old to months of abuse and neglect until she died in February 2000.

"I cannot blame anybody else expect for myself for what I have done and how I let the situation get out of hand, " he told the inquiry chairman Lord Laming, according to a transcript of the testimony.

Offering his apologies to Victoria's family he added: " My behaviour and actions are totally unacceptable."

In his evidence, which was recorded by a live video link from Leeds combined court on January 10, Manning admitted helping Kouao to deceive Haringey's housing and social services department.

He admitted pretending to the council that he was engaged to someone else when Kouao and Victoria came to live with him in July 1999, and that their presence was causing friction in his fictitous relationship.

The reason for this pretence was to enable Kouao and Victoria to be rehoused by the council, he said.

The killer also claimed that Kouao coached Victoria into claiming he had sexually abused the girl on November 1 1999.

However, although he expected social services to investigate the allegation, which he denied, neither they nor the police ever did.